Mandela Washington Fellowship

at the University of Delaware

The Fourth Generation of African Leaders

I dream of an Africa where people will be free and get involved in the economic development. I dream of an Africa where our differences will not separate us, but will bring us together to fight for a common cause, a common goal that I call the Economic Development of Africa (EDA). Why economic development? Because I strongly believe that, this is one of the keys that will take Africa out of poverty.

They said that by 2030, Africa will have a larger workforce than China, and by 2050, it will have the largest workforce in the world. Fred Swaniker said that Africa needs strong institutions to achieve development. He shows the power that a current African leader can have on institutions. For instance, Joseph Kabila the president of Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C), my country, can ask the central bank to print money and the bank’s manager will do it immediately without asking questions. Do you see how power can change Africa if we only have good leaders?

I believe in the fourth generation of African leaders. Fred Swaniker also highlighted the first generation of African leaders that have changed Africa, for instance Kwame Khruma from Ghana and Julius Nyerere from Tanzania.  After came a second generation of leaders that ruined Africa.  Among them we have Mobutu the former president of ZAIRE which is now D.R.C. The third generation is trying to clean all the mess left by previous generation, we have people like president Kagame of Rwanda. Fred calls them stabilizer leaders.

I believe that the fourth African leader’s generation is us. And our mission is to build strong institutions in Africa, to create jobs and educate the African population. We need to create the sustainability of our institutions but also to understand how this will help Africa to become a better place to live.

I like the Mandela Washington Fellowship (MWF) program, a flagship of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). They are trying to build a kind of that fourth generation that we believe will change Africa. If you need to learn more about YALI please visit https://yali.state.gov/. More than 7000 young people applied for this program but only 700 have been selected. At my university, the University of Delaware, 25 fellows from 20 different African countries are on the strong work in communities. The Mandela Washington Fellowship equips us with tools such as fundraising, advocacy to create a difference in our work.

 


 

Kerry Bulonza Byamungu has four years of experience in administration, agriculture, and volunteering. Kerry uses her economic background as an administrative assistant at Tetra Tech, an American organization implementing the “Feed the Future Strengthening Value Chains Project” funded by USAID in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kerry is also the founder of the Kansi Corporation, a group that equips rural women with local resources to fight malnutrition. She is driven by her commitment to reducing malnutrition in rural areas using agriculture. Upon completion of the Mandela Washington Fellowship, Kerry will continue to work with rural women to fight malnutrition.

 

 

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